These tiny Necco hard colorful heart shaped candies are one of the things I look forward to around Valentine’s so I decided to look into them and see what their story is all about.The first thing I found was that they’ve been around since the Civil War. They started out shaped like a seashell with a long noted word written on a piece of cloth and stuffed into the shell itself. The messages weren’t the short “Love You” type of sayings. Instead they were long worded sayings like “Married in satin, Love will not be lasting” “Married in Pink, He will take to drink” and “Married in white, You have chosen right.”
In 1902 the seashell shape was replaced by the heart along with other shapes such as a baseball, horseshoe, postcard and a watch. In time, only the heart would be continued to be made.
Each year the little sayings on the hearts all have a related meaning. In 2007 the sayings were all animal related and we saw “Cool Cat”, “Bear Hug” and Top Dog”. This year they’re weather related and we’ll see “Melt My Heart”, “In A Fog”, “Chill Out” and “Cloud Nine”. But there are classics that appear every year such as “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me”. Some sayings are retired because of changing times such as “Dig Me” and the ever popular “U R Gay” (no joke).
Over 8 billions little hearts will be sold this season alone. The stay fresh for a surprising 5 years and even though they only have a 3 week mass selling window it takes around 11 months to make a single years batch.
This year's sayings:
- MELT MY HEART
- IN A FOG
- CHILL OUT
- CLOUD NINE
- HEAT WAVE
- SUNSHINE
- GET MY DRIFT
- WILD LIFE
- NATURE LOVER
- DO GOOD
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